Laila had been looking forward to dinner with the rest of her friends. She was sad that Wu didn't eat with them, but she was grateful that the other fourth year had opened up to her. She hoped that one day Wu would feel comfortable enough to rejoin them, but for now she would just let it be. But she had some exciting news to share. She thought she and Dustin Newell were making progress to becoming friends and since friends seemed to hard to come by at Sonora she was excited that she had gone and made another one all by herself.

"Guys, I--" she had begun when an interruption at the table caused her to stop short.

Her happy mood diminished, however, as Joella came by their table and she remembered the incident that had sparked her and Dustin's budding friendship. She had seen Jax follow Joella behind a tapestry that hid a secret staircase. Nothing had really been mentioned since then about it and Laila had been distracting herself by hanging out with the Reinhardts whenever possible, but seeing Joella put her arm around Jax like that just brought back all the feelings that she'd had before.

Gia's reaction and the way she had switched to Greek in order to talk to Jax just made Laila feel worse. It really seemed like Gia was happy for her brother and their other friend and Laila wanted to be happy for them too. They were her friends and she felt like a horrible person that their happiness was making her as miserable as it was, but she just couldn't help how she felt.

She felt as though she were a marionette whose strings had been cut suddenly and without warning, and she averted her eyes quickly to the green beans that were on her plate as she popped one in her mouth, neglecting the silverware in front of her. Suddenly she felt grateful that she had seen Jax and Joella go under the tapestry together. It meant that she had been slightly prepared. The sting still hadn't been taken away, but she'd already cried about it so she knew she'd be able to keep it together until she went to her room later that night.

"So that explains the whole tapestry business," she said casually as though the sudden revelation didn't bother her at all. She refused to let her friends think she was upset by this. It wouldn't be fair to overshadow their happy day by her pettiness.

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